Posts tagged with "Wheelwright Prize":

The Harvard Graduate School of Design has named Polish-born architect Aleksandra Jaeschke as the winner of the 2019 Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 travel-based research grant for up-and-coming architects.
Jaeschke’s winning proposal, UNDER WRAPS: Architecture and Culture of Greenhouses, will take her on a two-year exploration of Taiwan, Morocco, Poland, Israel, Spain, South Korea, Mexico and other countries, to study the diversity of urban and rural greenhouses, in an effort to better understand how humans interact with the botanic world.
The impact of building typologies on the environment is a recurring theme for Jaeschke, whose doctoral dissertation at Harvard, Green Apparatus: Ecology of the American House According to Building Codes, focused on how residential building codes and products are shaping environmental awareness.
“With her pioneering work on greenhouses, Aleksandra Jaeschke reasserts that the field of architecture can and should continue to engage deeply with nature, with horticulture, and with ruralism and the countryside,” said Mohsen Mostafavi, jury member and Dean of Harvard GSD.
Under Wraps was chosen from more than 145 proposals, submitted by architects from 46 countries. Mostafavi also applauded the two other finalists, Maria Shéhérazade Giudici and Garrett Ricciardi, “for their outstanding proposals, which made the decision about this year’s award exceedingly challenging.”
The 2019 Wheelwright Prize jury included Tatiana Bilbao, Loreta Castro Reguera, K. Michael Hays, Eric Höweler, Mohsen Mostafavi, Megan Panzano, and 2015 Prize winner Erik L'Heureux.
The jury’s full comments on Jaeschke’s proposal will be posted on the award’s website shortly.

Brussels-based architect Aude-Line Dulière has won the Harvard Graduate School of Design's 2018 Wheelwright Prize, the large travel and research grant for emerging architects. Dulière's winning proposal, Crafted Images: Materials Flow, Techniques, and Reuses in Set Construction Design, investigates the supply chain and construction methods in the film industry to investigate potential avenues for adaptive reuse that can be applied to the AEC industry, as well.
"Aude-Line's work demonstrates a sophisticated vision of spatial quality in a variety of forms that translates into her interest in the architecture of set design," said Harvard GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi. "By exploring material reuse strategies at the intersection of film, construction, and architecture, Aude-Line's project offers exciting possibilities for innovative approaches to sustainability, infused with an equally important and very sensitive consideration of aesthetic beauty."
Dulière, who holds an M.Arch from the GSD and works as an architect and movie production design assistant in Europe, was selected from a pool of five finalists for the fellowship. She will use the Wheelwright's $100,000 travel and research stipend to deepen the ideas set forth in Crafted Images.
Here's what Dulière had to say about her process:
"The movie industry has the potential to offer clues for streamlining material flows and offers opportunities for experimentation on sustainability for contemporary architectural practice," she said in a prepared statement.
In addition to Mostafavi, Edward Eigen, K. Michael Hays, and the newly-appointed chair of GSD's architecture school, Mark Lee, this year's jury included Frida Escobedo, Michelle Wilkinson, and Jose Ahedo, the 2014 winner. Last year, Chilean architect Samuel Bravo won the Wheelwright Prize for his work on informal settlements across the globe.
More information on Dulière's project proposal will be posted on the award's website shortly.

Chilean architect Samuel Bravo has been named as the 2017 winner of the Wheelwright Prize by the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). He is the fifth awardee of the open international competition that supports research proposals with a travel grant being given to the winner.
Bravo will take home a $100,000 grant to aid his design- and travel-based research. His proposal Projectless: Architecture of Informal Settlements studies traditional architecture and informal settlements, touching up Bernard Rudofsky's notion of “architecture without architects," which the artist put forward in his 1964 Museum of Modern Art exhibition.
The Chilean architect, according to a press release, plans to visit South America, Asia, and Africa, as he intends to unearth the architectural vernacular of visited sites and work out how to amalgamate these with contemporary approaches to design.
Formal architecture only caters for the minority, Bravo argues. The rest live in the informal built environment. The idea of such an environment has been considered before: "There is no such thing as bad architecture; only good architecture and non-architecture," stated Ernesto Nathan Rogers (yes, Richard Rogers' father) and that notion was later echoed by Reyner Banham. In his 1964 exhibition, Ruodofsky said the essentially non-architectural projects featured are "not produced by the specialist but by the spontaneous and continuing activity of a whole people with a common heritage, acting under a community of experience."
In light of this, Bravo will look into how project-less environments exist and how formal architecture can inhabit and operate within such confines. In his proposal, Bravo also referenced how design must be sensitive to the potential "cultural frictions" associated with restructuring problematic settlements.
The 2017 WheelwrightPrize jury consisted of Gordon Gill, Mariana Ibañez, Gia Wolff, and standing WheelwrightPrize Committee members Mohsen Mostafavi and K. Michael Hays.
"Samuel is a sophisticated designer and a mature thinker, qualities that make him an ideal candidate for this year’s WheelwrightPrize," said Mohsen Mostafavi, dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design at Harvard GSD in a press release. "His work on its own is striking, and the participatory design-build process he has refined over time is additionally compelling. In resurrecting ideas about so-called 'non-pedigreed' architecture and expanding the scope of his research and practice internationally, Samuel’s project opens up new and exciting paths for the next generation of architects."

The kitchen appears—again—to be the go-to space to reflect contemporary life and societal ideas. In 1957, the Long Island Kitchen of the late Jack Massey embodied capitalism and the American dream. 59 years on, Anna Puigjaner’s winning submission for this years Wheelwright competition, Kitchenless City: Architectural Systems for SocialWelfare,explores collective dwelling and new ways of living to combat the affordable housing issues around the world.
Announced by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), Puigjaner has been given a $100,000 travelling fellowship which will be used to foster "investigative approaches to contemporary design." A graduate from the Barcelona Technical University of Catalunya School of Architecture, Puigjaner founded MAIO Studio alongside Maria Charneco, Alfredo Lérida, and Guillermo López. The studio covers many aspects of design including exhibitions, furniture, interiors, public spaces, urban planning, and architecture. They also had an exhibition at this years Chicago Architecture Biennale.
Kitchenless City looks at dwellings with shared amenity spaces including kitchen units, dining rooms, lounges and other service spaces. Her project uses case studies from Russia, Brazil, Sweden, China, Korea, and India where spatial arrangements cater for shared amenities in different ways.
Notable examples include the Kommunalka dwellings developed under Stalin and Carmen Portinho's Rio de Janeiro's housing directive of the 1950s which saw Affonso Eduardo Reidy's "Pedregulho" snake across highways and the city. The Sargfabrik complex in Vianna by BKK-2 Architectur in 1996 also features as does Liu Yang’s You+ International Youth Apartments in China and India's "solar" kitchens.
"There was a time in United States when collective housekeeping policies shaped housing typologies and urban growth to shrink domestic expenses," she said. "At that time, housing was understood as a tool for social and urban transformation. Although these peculiar buildings have almost disappeared, they had a large international influence encouraging the construction of similar buildings that are still working today. The aim of this project is to research these cases and define a set of housing and urban strategies for a better social welfare."

Kitchenless City also builds on work Puigjaner started during her Ph.D. while reflecting MAIO Studio’s involvement in flexible systems and the "potential of variation, ephemerality, and appropriation." Puigjaner has also had numerous articles addressing the subject published including essays to Space Caviar’s SQM: The Quantified Home and Volume (2013, #3).
“Anna Puigjaner believes that architects should do more than simply design buildings and the spaces that surround them, but they should be concerned about the way people actually use those spaces,” said Rafael Moneo, a member of the awarding jury. “Her motto—‘Architecture goes beyond physicality’—means that buildings should help people to make their lives more efficient. She seeks to endow architecture with the power to alleviate the burdens of our domestic life. The lightness, subtlety, and cleanliness that is always present in Puigjaner's work allows us a glimpse of how she imagines this architecture should be, and anticipates the lines of investigation she will pursue on her travels with the Wheelwright Prize.”

In a press release, The 2016 Wheelwright Prize jury praised Puigjaner for the relevance of her topic today, as rapidly urbanizing cities struggle to provide adequate affordable housing for their growing populations. The jury emphasized the importance of awarding a research project that could produce new forms of architectural knowledge, and noted in particular the pertinence of Puigjaner’s research to new housing development models as well as the rise of alternative sharing and resource-pooling economies.

There are four finalists competing for the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) international travel fellowship this year. For the uninitiated, the Wheelwright Prize is almost like a Fulbright research grant, but for young international architects. Aimed at architecture graduates of the past 15 years, the winner will receive a sweet deal: they’ll take home $100,000 towards research outside of the United States (or if living internationally, outside their country of residence). Additionally, there are opportunities to lecture at the Harvard GSD and publish research in a GSD publication.
The four finalists are presenting their work at the Harvard GSD this April 20th. Last year’s award went to Erik L’Heureux, an architect and assistant professor based in Singapore. His proposal centered on studying architecture in equatorial zone cities like Jakarta and São Paolo.
The prize was founded in 1935 in memory of Arthur W. Wheelwright, and originally awarded to top graduates of Harvard’s GSD program. The prize opened up four years ago to young international architects beyond GSD. The prize has gone to a roster of notables that include I. M. Pei, Paul Rudolph, and Eliot Noyes.
Here is a rundown of the four finalists and images of their past work. The GSD selected the four finalists from a pool of over 200 entrants from 45 countries.
Samuel Bravo
Chilean architect and assistant professor Samuel Bravohas a background working on earthquake reconstruction in historic areas in South America. His proposal is titled Cultural Frictions: A Transference, From Traditional Architecture to Contemporary Production.
Matilde Cassani
Architect, designer, and curator, Matilde Cassani, from Milan, has worked on sustainable developments in Germany and rebuilding after tsunamis. Her studies have focused on public space, migrant communities, and modern sacred/religious spaces. Her proposal is titled Once in a Lifetime: The Architecture of Ritual in Pilgrimage Sites.
Anna Puigjaner
Barcelona-based architect Anna Puigjaner (MAIO) focuses on the impacts of flexibility in architecture and design. Her past work has explored adaptable, site-specific installations, as well as the connections and tensions between urban and domestic life. Her proposal is titled Kitchenless City: Architectural Systems for Social Welfare.
Pier Paolo Tamburelli
The fourth finalist is architect and visiting professor Pier Paolo Tamburelli, cofounder of baukuh architects (based in both Genoa and Milan). He has worked on mixed-use and public buildings, as well as masterplans and historic renovations. His proposal is titled Wonders of the Modern World.

The Harvard Graduate School of Design has named Erik L’Heureux as the winner of the 2015 Wheelwright Prize. L’Heureux is an American architect and current professor at the National University of Singapore; he also heads up his own firm called Pencil Office. Along with the prestigious accolade comes a $100,000 traveling fellowship for L’Heureux to study new approaches to contemporary design for two years.
L’Heureux's proposal, Hot and Wet: The Equatorial City and the Architectures of Atmosphere, asked how architecture can help Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Pondicherry, Lagos, and São Paulo mediate the impacts of climate change while simultaneously responding to urbanization. L’Heureux presented his proposal in mid-April at the GSD alongside other finalists Malkit Shoshan from Amsterdam and Quynh Vantu from London.
“We commend L’Heureux, Shoshan, and Vantu, who are each working impressively to broaden the definition and possibilities of architectural practice,” said K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Harvard GSD. “L’Heureux is an example of an architect with a strong practice who has developed a serious intellectual project that relates organically to his own work. His proposal is not just about technology and efficiency, but deals with the politicization of ecologies and economies in a complicated region and architecture’s complicity in difficult global issues.”

The Harvard Graduate School of Design has announced the three potential awardees of the 2015 Wheelwright Prize, a travel-based architectural research grant valued at $100,000. Each year, one architect from approximately 200 applicants bags the prize.
Established in 1935 at a time when foreign travel was limited to an elite few and then known as the Arthur C. Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, the prize used to be awarded solely to GSD alumni. It has now become an international competition welcoming early-career architects (within 15 years of earning an architectural degree) from around the world to bring in new blood, fresh ideas, and cross-cultural exchange.
The number of countries represented has grown from 46 the previous year to 51 this year, including Bosnia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Poland, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Zimbabwe and more. The seven-person jury of architects has selected three finalists to present their research proposals at the Harvard Graduate School of Design on April 16, with the winner to be announced at the end of the month.
To inspire the next generation of Wheelwright prizewinners, the winner of the 2013 Wheelwright Prize, Gia Wolff, will present "Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats," reporting on her research on over the past two years on carnival festivals. "The idea is not just about travel—the act of going and seeing the world—but it is about binding the idea of geography to themes and issues that hold great potential relevance to contemporary practice," said Harvard GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi in a statement.
The three 2015 finalists are as follows:
Erik L’Heureux, Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, presenting: “Hot and Wet: The Equatorial City and the Architectures of Atmosphere.”
Malkit Shoshan, founder of think tank, FAST (Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory) Amsterdam, presenting: “Architecture and Conflict: Pre-Cycling the Compound”
Quynh Vantu, Award-winning Architect, London, presenting : “On Movement: The Threshold and its Shaping of Culture and Spatial Experience.”

Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced seven finalists for the $100,000 Wheelwright Grant which is awarded annually for travel-based architectural research. This prize was first given in 1935 to purely GSD grads until it was revamped in 2013 to be an open competition.
The 2014 competition received nearly 200 submissions from 46 countries. The jury awarded special commendation to seven individuals for their exceptional design talent and imaginative research proposals. The winner will be announced on April 30th.
Jose Ahedo
Studio Ahedo
BarcelonaWheelwright proposal: Domesticated Grounds: Design and Domesticity Within Animal Farming Systems.
Jose Ahedo established his own firm, Studio Ahedo, in 2010. His first completed project is Blanca, a dairy complex in the Pyrenees, which includes 13 buildings comprising animal facilities, research labs, and an education center.
Ana Dana Beros
Think Space
Zagreb, CroatiaWheelwright proposal: INTERMUNDIA: Re-Imagining Border-Scape in Mediterranean Countries.
Ana Dana Beros is an independent architect, curator, editor, educator, and exhibition designer.
Alison Crawshaw
Alison Crawshaw Architecture
LondonWheelwright proposal: The Poison and the Cure: Rubbish in the Information Age.
Alison wrote a thesis on illegal building practices in Rome during her time as a Rome Scholar.
Masaaki Iwamoto
Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Ho Chi Minh CityWheelwright proposal: Tropical Skin: Study on New Building Envelope for Tropical Megacities.
His work includes low-cost housing, a kindergarten, and workplaces, has been widely published.
Jimenez Lai
Bureau Spectacular
ChicagoWheelwright proposal: Caricatures, Fictions and Hyperboles: A Revisit of the World of Wonders.
Jimenez Lai is the principal of Bureau Spectacular and an assistant architecture professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sean Lally
Weathers
ChicagoWheelwright proposal: Climate Design: The Architecture of Energies.
Sean Lally is the founder of the firm Weathers and assistant architecture professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
Kaz Yoneda
Takram Design Engineering
TokyoWheelwright proposal: Utopics of Cities: Amorphous Contemporaneity of Ideal.
Kaz Yoneda is the founder of the Architecture and Space Design Unit at Takram Design Engineering

Yesterday, Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design officially announced the winner of the first Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 traveling fellowship aimed at cultivating new forms of architectural research through cultural exchange. The jury awarded the fellowship to Gia Wolff, a Harvard graduate and Brooklyn-based architect, for her original proposal Floating City: The Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats. The young architect and professor, who currently leads her own practice, uniquely explored the cultural significance and design of the traditional parade float, which frequently transforms cities and brings people together during carnival festivals all throughout the world. The competition generated 231 submissions from 45 countries
"The Wheelright Prize is about putting a voyage together in order to discover, and learn from, a particular architectural production somewhere distant in the world. Gia, whose work is all about imagination, has identified the parade float—in such cities as Rio de Janeiro, Nice, and Goa— as an ephemeral form of architecture both laden with cultural exuberance and remarkable for the communitarian organization it requires,” commented jury member Farès el-Dahdah in a statement.
Applicants were asked to submit a portfolio of their work, a research proposal, as well as a detailed travel itinerary specifying exactly where, how, and what they intend to achieve with the $100,000 grant, which will fund 2 years of research.
The competition stems from the Arthur Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship, established in 1935, exclusively open to Harvard graduates, and awarded to distinguished architects like I.M Pei and Elliot Noyes. In keeping with the school’s commitment to the sharing and exchanging of ideas between countries, cultures, themes, and issues, the Wheelwright Prize was opened to early-career architects practicing all over the world.